Monday, February 28, 2011

February Final

Another month flies by. I close February with these photos. I had to pick my wife up at the local Orlando Amtrak station today. She'd gone to visit a friend down in Hollywood, FL over the weekend. While waiting for the train to arrive from its stop in Kissimmee, I happened to spot this photographer waiting for the train as well. He was carefully balancing on the bench, concentrating on that special moment he had in mind before tripping the shutter on his Canon.

So intent was he that he was oblivious to me and my little E-P2 as I began to take a few photos of him. I felt for sure he'd hear the shutter and turn around, if briefly, but I never registered.

One part of his technique I noticed was his use of on-camera flash. It went off when the train was still fairly far away, and considering it was broad daylight, I have to wonder if it was deliberate or accidental. The E-3 has a fairly powerful on-camera flash, but it wouldn't have helped with today's lighting conditions. In fact, even if I'd had the FL-50R mounted, it still wouldn't have helped with a large train that far away.

As he turned to step off the bench he almost ran into me, which is when he finally noticed I was there.

And here's today's gas prices courtesy of a Shell station at Mills and Orange Ave. I was down to my last gallon in the Prius (the electronic gas gauge blinks at you when that happens), and I'd stopped here to get a fill-up and a couple of cold sodas for my wife and I. Less than 48 hours ago, a gallon of regular was eight cents cheaper.

Gotta love the intersection of international politics and the commodities markets.

Statistics

This is post #778. I've now published more posts through February (86) of this year than I did for all of 2005 (80), 2009 (82), and 2010 (73). I leave it to my Gentle Readers to determine if the increased output is any better than those three years (i.e. quantity vs. quality).